The difference between men and women came up in a song today, triggered indirectly by the puzzle. I may have already told you one of my favorite differences between men and women. It’s that if it comes down to a choice between catching a fly ball and saving the life of a baby, a woman will go for the baby without even considering if there are men on base.
The clue at 39A was “Cocktails that might make for poor nightcaps,” and the answer was WHITE RUSSIANS, because they contain a coffee liqueur. And the song is by Paul Kelly called “Everything Is Turning to White.” It’s based on a Raymond Carver story “So Much Water So Close To Home.”
You live in the South and you really look forward to a fishing trip with the boys. You meet up with your buddies and drive 100 miles to the perfect spot, even though there are places closer you could go to. When you arrive — yowtch! — you find the body of brutally murdered girl in the water.
Sh*t, don’t you hate when that happens?
Now your perfect fishing weekend may be ruined. But the guys and you figure she’s already dead — why not go ahead and enjoy yourselves and call the police after the weekend? So that’s what you do. You secure the body a little bit downstream, enjoy the weekend, and call the cops before heading home.
See, now, they were considering the men on base. If it were women they couldn’t possibly have continued with their plans once the body turned up. Here’s the song. It’s from the wife’s perspective.
At 34D, for “What might be pinched for pennies,” the answer was COIN PURSE. I used to have one like this:
You can still get them (in different colors) at Wallet Gear for $6.95. If you mention Owl Chatter, it’s $7.95. But I just keep my change loose in my back pocket now.
Remember Javier Bardem in “No Country?” He’d sometime let someone flip a coin to determine if Bardem would kill him or not. The coin flipper may not even realize what’s at stake. The old guy behind the counter at the gas station called it right, so his life was spared. Bardem said something like, “You might want to keep that coin somewhere special; otherwise you’ll think it’s an ordinary coin — which it is.”
The Gnats had a very frustrating three games in NY, losing all three to the Mets when they shoulda won two. Let’s take a look at one play, though, from yesterday’s game. The Mets were up 4-0 and led off the bottom of the 8th with a double by Marte. If the Gnats were to have even a remote chance of a miracle comeback, they’d have to keep him from scoring. Gnat third baseman Tena was playing way off the line, almost at shortstop, with lefty Baty batting. The Mets announcers are the best there are: Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez, all great masters of the game. Darling saw Tena’s position and said, “Marte should try to steal third. Tena is so far off the bag he’d be racing to it along with Marte and he’d have to win that race, plus make the catch and tag while the catcher (Ruiz) would need to make a perfect, leading throw like a quarterback hitting a receiver crossing the field.”
On the very next pitch, everything Darling had just described in such detail unfolded before us and it was gorgeous. Marte made his dash for third, a split second later Tena did the same. Catcher Ruiz caught the pitch and threw a bullet low and directly to the base. Tena got there just in time to catch it and slam his glove down on Marte’s helmet — he was out by a step.
The Gnats rallied in the ninth, scoring three runs and putting the tying and lead runs on second and third with only one out. Alas, the rally petered out at that point.
Here’s Tena.
OMG, doesn’t this look good? You ever hear of it? Opera cake. It was at 2D: dessert with layers of sponge, buttercream and ganache.
If the very first clue sets the tone for the puzzle, we were in good shape today. The clue at 1A was “Short shorts,” with the answer HOT PANTS.
Rex asked “Do they still call them that? Feels very much like a ’70s phenomenon.” We referred it to our Dirty Old Man Dept, needless to say. Here are some U of Tennessee babes from 50 years ago. I bet they’re still knockouts.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 